The present invention relates to a roof airbag apparatus, and more particularly, a roof airbag apparatus capable of preventing an occupant from being injured or thrown out of a vehicle when a vehicle accident occurs.
In general, an airbag apparatus is installed in a vehicle to ensure safety of a vehicle occupant. A typical airbag apparatus includes a gas injection unit and an airbag. When an external impact of a predetermined magnitude or more is applied to the vehicle, the gas injection unit supplies gas into the airbag and deploys the airbag to protect the occupant.
Such airbag apparatuses may be mounted at various predetermined positions in vehicles, e.g., in a steering wheel installed on an instrument panel, an upper end of a glove box, and side surfaces of a passenger compartment, taking specifications of the vehicles, a target to be protected, etc., into account.
Particularly, a roof airbag apparatus is a kind of airbag apparatus that is mounted in a roof or the like of a vehicle and is to be deployed over an occupant so as to protect the occupant. In such a roof airbag apparatus, an air bag deployed in case of emergency may block an opening of a sunroof installed in the vehicle to prevent the occupant from being thrown out of the vehicle through the opening of the sunroof, and absorb an impact to be applied to the occupant so as to reduce injury of the occupant.
However, in the case of the conventional roof airbag apparatus, when an impact is applied to the airbag that is in a deployed state, the airbag may be excessively deformed. In this case, the airbag cannot reliably support the occupant, and the occupant may be thrown out of the vehicle through the opening of the sunroof. Therefore, there is a need to improve this configuration.